Missing packages rampant in Massachusetts

Monday

Sarah Christopher is still waiting for two packages containing $78 in gifts she ordered online for her children.

The packages were supposed to arrive on Nov. 27, but disappeared somewhere along the way.

“I never received (them),” Christopher wrote in an email to Wicked Local.

Online sales are expected to total up to $134 billion this holiday season, as the internet has given extraordinary power to consumers. An American, sitting at home on his or her smartphone in pajamas, can purchase items from around the world using only a finger.

And while those items often successfully traveled thousands of miles, the so-called “final mile” – representing the distance between distribution centers and customers’ doorsteps – has become a costly time suck for residents, police and businesses.

The issues surrounding the final mile are multifaceted, but part of it relates to crime.

Unguarded packages will sometimes sit for hours before people get home, making them an easy target for thieves. The relatively new brand of criminal has earned the nickname “porch pirates.”

SafeWise, an online security-review site, named Boston one of the top 10 metro areas where porch pirates strike the most.

Of those respondents, 4 percent said they reported the theft to police, underscoring a disconnect described by Christopher.

“There is no easy way to report this,” Christopher said. “If the city wants to know the scope of the problem, there should be an easy way to report online.”

The issue isn’t unique to Cambridge, or Christopher, as stolen packages are reported daily in communities across the state. Insurancequotes.com estimates 25.9 million Americans have had a gift stolen from their property.

In Quincy, police in December arrested four people accused of stealing packages. And four more package thefts were reported the following day, according to The Patriot Ledger, a Wicked Local sister publication.

In Scituate, Melissa Peralta – sick of having a dozen packages stolen in 2018 – put out what she called a “glitter bomb.” The fake package, designed to cover the person opening it with glitter, yielded results, as the next day she found a trail of glitter leading up to the second floor of the mixed-use property where she lives.

But thieves are not always the cause of disappearing packages.

Kara Bayles reached out to Wicked Local to say she tracked a FedEx delivery to her home in Scituate, where it was scanned at her residence. When she got home, it wasn’t there.

“We are hoping someone is able to help us locate it and remain hopeful it wasn’t stolen,” Bayles wrote in an email.

Less than 12 hours later, Bayles reached out again saying the package was delivered to someone else on a different street who graciously took the time to complete the delivery.

Patty Robbins, who lives at the end of a dirt road in Plymouth, says missing and damaged packages are common where she lives. When she tries to detail her frustration to delivery companies, she feels ignored.

“They leave my stuff out literally in the road or alongside the mailbox, which is on the opposite side of the street,” Robbins wrote in an email. “I’m gone all day every day; it’s really out of hand and ridiculous. You call the post office, or saying something to UPS, they could care less.”

Online retailers and logistics companies are not blind to the issue. The final mile accounts for up to 53 percent of total shipping costs, according to estimates detailed in Business Insider. And with the prevalence of companies offering free shipping, the cost of items lost along the way typically comes out of the bottom line.

Companies are experimenting with different solutions, including an attempt to boost the number of delivery drivers by luring workers from the so-called gig economy.

The retail giant Amazon.com is looking to hire anyone with a car interested in delivering packages on a part-time basis, challenging long-existing competition between the U.S. Postal Service and private companies, such as UPS and FedEx, to deliver the final mile.

The app-based model, similar to Uber and Lyft, allows drivers to sign up for a block of time and deliveries; they are compensated based on hours and deliveries. The company says drivers can make between $18 and $25 per hour, although the estimate doesn’t account for vehicle depreciation or the cost of gas. The model is potentially lucrative for the multibillion dollar company, as it most likely reduces labor costs. The position does not come with benefits, and drivers are expected to use their own cars with their own insurance.

“Be your own boss, set your own schedule, and pursue your goals and dreams,” is posted on a job description for Amazon Flex in the Boston area.

Companies have also experimented with delivering to drop boxes, accessible by keycodes, along with delivering to designated establishments when customers are not home.

In Sterling, police have gone so far as to allow the shipping of parcels to the police station during December, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, a Wicked Local sister publication.

Like customers and businesses, police are also burdened by the large amount of time it takes to investigate so many packages that go missing.

“Better off a little inconvenience, taking the packages in the police station, than having to go through the investigation of stolen property,” said Sterling Police Chief Greg Chamberland.

Eli Sherman is an investigative and in-depth reporter at Wicked Local and GateHouse Media. Email him at esherman@wickedlocal.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.